Creature design a priority for Godzilla filmmakers

At last year's San Diego Comic Con Godzilla panel, director Gareth Edwards told the Hall H audience that no matter where he went, when people discovered he had been given the reins of a new Godzilla film the response was often the same.
"You better not F@#$ it up," he joked.
If the reaction to previously unseen footage by yesterday's WonderCon crowd is any indication he may have succeeded. In addition to the most recent trailer, fans saw San Francisco ravaged by a Godzilla induced tsunami and the city's airport terrorized by a ferocious bat-like kaiju creature. The beast's carnage is interrupted by Godzilla. As the iconic character's foot enters the frame the audiences approval is palpable and reached a crescendo as Godzilla is revealed in his massive entirety.
Edwards tells the audience not to congratulate him until they have seen the movie. During the question and answer segment of the presentation One audience member decked out in a Godzilla T-shirt said he wanted to thank him on behalf of all Godzilla fans.
"You should never thank me for doing this film," Edwards responds. "It was a completely selfish act. I was making it whether you were seeing it or not."
Edwards reiterated throughout the panel that getting the creature design right was of the utmost importance. According to Edwards, Toho, the Japanese production company that released the original Godzilla film in 1954, as well as its numerous sequels had sign off rights on creature designs.
"That turned out to be the hardest thing, because everyone has an opinion of what Godzilla looks like," he said.
Edwards described the painstaking process of tweaking a digital model of the creature until it was exactly right. Once it looked good from one angle, the changes would throw something else out of whack from a different angle.
"I feel like the best designs ever are strongest when they works as a silhouette. So, if you ever saw a 'Warning, Godzilla Crossing' sign everyone would know that's Godzilla, its not a deer, its not a bear, that's Godzilla."
In addition to finalizing the design, the next challenge was discovering and capturing who Godzilla is as a character.
"It's a bit like having a real actor. You think you know who the character is when you start but then you sort of meet them," he explains. "How I feel about Godzilla now is totally different than a year ago. He sort of reveals himself through trial and error," he explains.
"You don't really choose who Godzilla is, Godzilla sort of tells you who he is. You make choices and this is stronger than that. You don't really create anything you just discover it."
While Godzilla's original appearance in 1954 is widely deemed to be a metaphor for the use of atomic bombs against Japan at the end of World War II, Edwards says there is another level to the character that touches on something primal about man's relationship with nature, that even though we build giant buildings and live in cities that deep down that fear of something bigger than us never totally went away.
"Still deep in our DNA we have this belief that the animal is coming,"
 
He says that is what makes the concept an easier sell than one would think.
"This shouldn't work. You shouldn't be able to release a movie with a giant monster and have everyone go see it," he says. "But it feels right."